Radiator drain issue

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92K5

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So I was going to perform a coolant flush on my 1992 K5 blazer yesterday, but I couldn't get the drain petcock open... It would turn about a quarter of the way, but would not open. Is there any other way to drain the radiator short of pulling the lower hose off?

Thanks,

John
 

someotherguy

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Draincock might be crudded up too much; if it's acting up I wouldn't risk it unless you want to end up possibly breaking it and ruining the radiator.

Lower hose is the fastest but also messiest way.

A cheap ($7) siphon bulb hose you can fish all the way to the bottom of the tank and siphon most of the coolant out from the radiator and whatever the block will feed back into the radiator, no mess. Of course you still have coolant in the block.

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Richard
 

92K5

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Thank you for the help! Is there anywhere in particular I should buy one? Or will most any siphon bulb work perfectly fine?

Thanks,

John
 

someotherguy

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I got that one at O'Reilly a while back, it's just your basic siphon bulb hose. What matters is that the feed end of it is long enough to get to the bottom of the tank.

Richard
 

skylark

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I have run into the 1/4 turn petcock. You turn it then you pull it out. It works similar to a 1/4 turn quick release fastener.
 

92K5

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Yeah... I tried pulling it straight out and it wasn't budging. I ended up buying a simple siphoning kit and that worked very well. I purchased a hand-pump style similar to a bicycle tire pump and then bought some bigger 1/2" o.d. tubing. Took about 6 minutes to siphon most of the radiator out.
 
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